This invention generally relates to video processing. More particularly, this invention relates to video quality analysis.
There are various situations and circumstances in which video information is processed for a specific purpose. For example, a video file may be transmitted from one device to another over a line-based or wireless link, for example. Transmitting a video often involves compressing the content of the video file so that it can be transmitted. The receiving device will then decompress the video file so that the original content can become available to a user of the receiving device.
One difficulty associated with such processing of a video file is that a compression algorithm may cause some errors in the eventually decompressed file or may introduce some inconsistencies between the original and processed video files. Additionally, the transmitting technique may introduce errors. For example, the available bandwidth over a wireless link or the signaling conditions over a transmitting medium can introduce errors.
It would be useful to be able to determine whether video processing is providing reliable results such that a processed video corresponds within a selected guideline to the original video. This invention provides a technique for determining a quality of a processed video.